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There are
many concrete examples of the place of the cigar in American culture, and the
giving of cigars to family and friends after the birth of a son or daughter is
one which has been with us for a long time.
But for how
long? When did it start?
There is no
commonly-accepted story about the origins of this uniquely-American custom, but
a quite plausible explanation was provided by the “Little Known Facts Show” and
reported by Chaz Allen in the Edmond (Ok.) Life & Leisure weekly.
Allen wrote that a box of cigars sat on the desk of U.S. President Grover
Cleveland and that as Cleveland fancied chewing tobacco rather than smoking it,
the box remained closed. No one – staff or visitor – was offered a cigar by the
President and none were brave enough to ask for one. When would it be opened?
The question
of who would be the first to get a cigar from the President became a Washington
sideshow quickly enough. The answer came when Cleveland’s first child, Ruth,
was born and he distributed cigars from the famous box and began the tradition
of fathers handing out cigars to celebrate the birth of their children.
Great! Now
you know the story . . . except it has a few problems with accuracy:
· Cleveland was not in office at the time that
Ruth, his first child, was born. Cleveland – the first Democrat to win the
Presidency since the Civil War – served as the 22nd U.S. President from
1885-89, but lost to Republican Benjamin Harrison in the 1888 elections. He
returned to the practice of law in New York and it was during that time that
Ruth was born in 1891.
· Allen’s story also noted that Cleveland as a
tobacco chewer, but not a cigar smoker. In fact, he enjoyed cigars as well.
However, there are significant reasons to believe that Cleveland might be
responsible for the famous practice of handing out cigars after births. In what
passed for the gossip columns of the day, the then-49-year-old Cleveland’s 1886
marriage – while serving as President – to 22-year-old Frances Folsom was an
absolute sensation, easily on the level (at that time) of the Bill
Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair.
Moreover, although Cleveland was a private citizen when Ruth was born in 1891,
there was little doubt that he would run for the Presidency again in 1892 and,
in fact, he became the only to win a second, non-consecutive term, serving from
1893-96. Thus, Ruth lived at the White House as a toddler, with her sisters
Ester (1893) and Marion (1895) born during Cleveland’s second term (the
Clevelands had five children in all).
Thus, “baby Ruth” was well-known to the American public as soon as she was born
and any activity carried by her father in celebration of her birth (after
marrying such a young bride) would have been widely reported by newspapers of
the day.
So it’s quite likely that the custom of handing out cigars would have been
popularized by Cleveland, although it had no doubt been done by less-well-known
fathers many times before. Unfortunately, Ruth died of diphtheria in 1904.
The well-known story of the
naming of the “Baby Ruth” candy bar after Cleveland’s first child is a little
more suspicious. Although the Curtiss Candy Co. claimed that the candy had been
named after Cleveland’s daughter, the item originated in 1921, well after
Cleveland had left the White House and 17 years after Ruth herself had died.
Furthermore, there is evidence that the company failed to negotiate a deal with
Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, who had one of the greatest seasons in baseball
history that same year (.378 batting average, 59 home runs, 171 runs batted in,
177 runs scored) but came up with the Ruth Cleveland story to allow the name to
be used.
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